Being a sports or entertainment lawyer once meant you might help a pro athlete or singer with an employment or recording deal contract. Today, that job title could mean you focus your practice on intellectual property, cybersecurity, taxation, or any number of other legal specialties, and that you do so from most anywhere around the globe. A recent survey of TerraLex attorneys revealed that, while sports and entertainment have certainly gone global (thanks largely to the Internet), individual countries wrestle with their own unique related legal and political issues.
In Russia, the government and sports teams are working to attract more foreign sports fans – as well as private investment. To this end, officials are – among other things – looking at relaxing visa requirements for foreigners visiting for sporting events. “(Russian sports teams) need to be more competitive, not just on the field, but commercially,” said attorney Andrey Tereschenko, a partner with Moscow-based law firm Pepeliaev Group. Tereschenko oversaw legal matters for Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup in Sochi.
